A judge on Wednesday awarded the city $15,761.69 to cover some legal costs in a failed injunction application related to the municipal hookah ban.

Lebanese Palace, its owner Brian Mahmoud and a patron of the establishment asked the Superior Court to compel the city to stop enforcing the new bylaw while they wait for a legal challenge to play out.

Lebanese Palace, Mahmoud and Fadi Itaif are challenging the hookah ban on cultural grounds. They claim the water pipe bylaw infringes on their rights because smoking shisha is intimately connected to Middle Eastern and Arab culture.

A hearing into the legality of the bylaw is scheduled for February.

For now, the three bylaw challengers will have to satisfy the court order and pay the city within the next 30 days.

City solicitor and clerk Rick O’Connor told council that enforcement of the bylaw continues. In fact, a court on Wednesday registered a conviction against a customer for violating the bylaw, resulting in a $385 fine. O’Connor didn’t identify the establishment in his memo to council.